Threatened ... mountain gorillas find one of their few remaining sanctuaries in Rwanda's forests. Photograph: Getty

The rolling green countryside of Rwanda's Thousand Hills area may look fertile and flourishing, but the area desperately needs help. At the launch of the United Nations International Year of Forests, the Rwandan minister of land and the environment, Stanislas Kamanzi, announced a forest landscape restoration initiative.

This is not just a gesture to placate conservation organisations trying to save mountain gorillas and one of their few remaining sanctuaries. "Without a sustainable environment we cannot develop. That is the reality," Kamanzi said. Rwanda has been forced to make a national priority of ending soil degradation, and safeguarding rivers and forests by 2035. It is simply a matter of survival for a population expected to double over the next 30 years.

"It is the first time that a developing country has made such a commitment nationally," says Hassan Partow, of the UN Environment Programme. "But the situation is urgent. Rwanda will only be able to reduce poverty if it restores its environment," he adds.

In 1994, in the aftermath of the genocide inflicted on the Tutsis, the return of almost a million refugees made matters much worse. To house them the government lifted restrictions on a large part of the protected areas. Half of the vast Akagera national park, on the border with Tanzania, was taken over. The Gishwati national park originally consisted of 28,000 hectares of rainforest. Now only 700 hectares is left. The number of wild animals living in these sanctuaries has plummeted.

To combat the scattered rural housing that is usual practice, villages are being built as part of the Imidugudu (planned housing) scheme, partly funded by the UN. "We now need to move up into higher gear. It is not enough just to plant trees," said Stewart Maginnis, of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which will help Rwanda define its strategy.

Wilderness restoration is a difficult task and a relatively new concept in Rwanda. "We need foreign expertise," Kamanzi admitted, adding that to carry through this vast undertaking the population must first be convinced of its necessity.